Hmm... recently my sleep schedule has been completely reversed. I sleep during the day and stay up all night watching cybersecurity courses online. As a result, I have nothing to do around five or six in the morning, so I decided to go for a ride. But today, I suddenly had the idea of trying out being a delivery driver for Ele.me (also known as Fengniao delivery, since we don't have Meituan delivery in our town). So, I spent an hour doing deliveries and wanted to share my experience of delivering food in a small county.
Hmm, one advantage of staying up all night is being able to watch the sunrise.
My vehicle is a F30c with the new national standard. Originally, I planned to work for Shansong delivery because their pay rate is different from Fengniao's. Shansong's pay rate starts at least at six to eight yuan per delivery. However, after running deliveries for Fengniao in the morning, I found that the pay for three deliveries from Ele.me is similar to one delivery from Shansong. The order volume is high, but the pay is too low. So, I decided to work for both platforms.
To be honest, delivering food feels like a technical job, especially in a small county. I once thought about doing food delivery if I couldn't make a living in the future. In our city, the base salary is around 2.4k, excluding additional wages. But after running deliveries for an hour, I feel like I'm almost there.
Firstly, there's the issue of delivery. As a new Fengniao driver, you can take up to three orders at the same time, with a delivery time of about half an hour per order. If you, like me, take three orders at once, it's impossible to meet the new national standard, but I exceeded the speed limit and reached 55km/h. Even so, I was still rushing, very rushed 😢 There were no people on the road in the morning, and I ran through all the red lights (don't learn from me), otherwise, I wouldn't have enough time to pick up the food and deliver it. It's not that I'm not familiar with the route, but having three orders together greatly affects the efficiency of your delivery.
The whole process was like this: I started taking orders at six o'clock, and within an hour, I had four orders. I missed two orders and accepted one Shansong order worth ten yuan, but I couldn't deliver it in time. I canceled it and only got half the pay. I'm tired. Saying that I want to deliver food is just a lie...
Then, there's the issue of customers. In one hour, I encountered all kinds of customers.
Including, but not limited to: not providing detailed addresses (I spent ten minutes on the phone trying to figure out the location...), writing vague addresses and refusing to come downstairs, and customers who kept talking on the phone, so I had no choice but to deliver the food based on the photos.
It's not a big deal, just consider it as experiencing life, right? 😁 It's okay, I can endure it.
Lastly, there's the issue of battery life. I have a 72v32a battery, and it ran out after using it for an hour delivering food with 80% battery. So, if you're going to deliver food, you definitely need to use a battery-swapping vehicle or switch to a larger battery capacity. Otherwise, the range won't be enough... Luckily, I didn't accept a fifth order, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to go back home.
In conclusion: I earned five yuan in one hour. Time to wash up and go to sleep.